Tamsin's New Job

Well I left Tamsin in charge of writing the next blog entry, so that she could talk about her job and several weeks have gone by and she hasn't got around to it, so I will give a thoroughly inaccurate account of it my own self.

Tamsin's job is at San Diego State University which is part of the Cal State university system. I'm not sure what Tamsin's project is because I tune out when she starts talking about doing unspeakable things to mice (the horror), but here is her lab website for an idea of what her group does. The job is predicated on her getting her visa status changed, so until then she is volunteering in the lab to stop her getting cabin fever at home. In order to accomplish this, we will be popping into Auckland and Christchurch on our way to Josh (Tamsin's baby brother) and Vics' wedding in Sydney in October. If Tamsin's request to change her visa status is unsuccessful (unlikely) then I will be following through on my promise to drop her off at the Home Depot to work as a day labourer with the other illegal immigrant workers.

Fun facts about San Diego State University

SDSU has approximately 34,500 students

For the past two years SDSU has been ranked the most productive research university amongst small universities. With Tamsin on board, this looks set to continue.

SDSU was #5 on Playboy's top party schools list of 2006, up from #10 in 2002. How Tamsin will contribute to this ranking remains uncertain

There was an undercover campus drug bust in May in which 75 students were arrested and "4 pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana, 48 hydroponic marijuana plants, 350 ecstasy pills, psilocybin (mushrooms), 30 vials of hash oil, methamphetamine, various illicit prescription drugs, one shotgun, three semiautomatic pistols, three brass knuckles and $60,000 in cash" were seized. This will probably will impact the party school ranking.

SDSU won the 1987 college rugby national championship

Some notable attendees of SDSU:
Gregory Peck, Raquel Welch, Julie Kavner (voice of Marge Simpson), the founders of three national fast food chains, Tony Gwynn (Hall of Fame baseball player for the Padres), Ellen Ochoa (first Latina astronaut; insert racist joke here), Marion Ross (Mrs Cunningham on Happy Days), Cor Vink (inventor of the salt and vinegar chip), the current mayor of San Diego and the San Diego Chicken

Now onto what we've been up to recently: other than work, not much

Probably the biggest news is that I've started pronouncing my Rs as "ar" instead of "ah" because I'm sick of people asking me to repeat myself. Also, whenever anyone asks for my name, I have to put on my best American accent to say "Campbell" and then follow it with "you know, like the soup". I've had many more "I'm sorry sir, what was that name again?" followed by "Order for Cable/Kimble/Kimbo/Wodjihowitzki/Ramirez" situations than accurate exchanges.

We went to the beach yesterday for the first time since we've been here. Unfortunately some other people had the same idea so there were a few people there. Americans have an interesting approach to preventing their houses from being burgled while they are at the beach, which is to pack everything into the back of their oversized pickup truck and take it with them.

Last weekend was Comicon also known as the annual Nerdfest, which is where 150 000 "people" descend on San Diego for the largest comic book (sorry, sorry I meant "graphic novel") and sci-fi convention in the world. This is one of the most difficult times of the year for the police, as incidents of nerd-rage spike over this four day event. Last year one person died when an argument about whether Captain Kirk or Captain Picard was better became violent and one of the combatants forgot to set his phaser to stun. A large proportion of these people dress up as their favourite character from the realm of nerdom. Foolishly I organised my Princess Leia costume before I tried to get a ticket then found they were sold out, so I missed out this year. Instead we went to see "The Comedians of Comedy" which, as the name suggests, is a mime/interpretive dance troupe from France. Actually it was 6 different standup comedians who were mostly very hilarious. I had a pseudo celebrity sighting there, as Simon Pegg (British guy who was in movies such as Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run and several TV shows) was in the audience. The next day we went for a drive inland to a town called Julian which is a former mining town and is now famous for its apple pie. I'm sure if you liked apple pie and tourist shops it would be a great place to visit.